Playoffs 2000:No changing Bird's mind; this will be it

No changing Bird's mind; this will be it
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- Even if he leads the Indiana Pacers to their first NBA championship, Larry Bird has no intention of returning to coach the team.

Bird was asked after the Pacers finished Friday's practice if he would reconsider his decision to step aside when the season ends.

"No, not at all," he said.

The Pacers, who finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference, go into the playoffs assured of home-court advantage through the conference playoffs. They open Sunday against the Milwaukee Bucks, a team Indiana swept in the first round last year.

Bird has answered skeptics who claimed superstars cannot be successful NBA coaches by compiling a three-year winning percentage of .687. Indiana has recorded its two most successful seasons since joining the NBA in 1976 during Bird's leadership, finishing 58-24 in his rookie season and 56-26 this past season.

"I never doubted he could coach. If I did, I wouldn't have hired him," said team president Donnie Walsh. "Did I know he would be as successful as he has been so quickly? No!"

Walsh would love to have Bird stay with the organization in another capacity if he sticks with his decision to step down.

Bird insists he isn't thinking about that now.

"What I want to do is get the season over. I've told Donnie, go do his business and do what he has to do," Bird said. "I'm focused on the season. This is my last year, and I don't want anything else to interrupt what we're trying to do."

Bird, 43, has three championship rings he got in his playing days with the Boston Celtics.

"This is my last chance to get these guys to the finals," Bird said. "That's all I want. I want them to get there, because I know when you get to the finals anything can happen. You just roll the dice."

Indiana has made it to the conference finals four times in the past six years, losing in seven games to the New York Knicks in 1994, Orlando in 1995, Chicago two years ago and to New York in six last season.

"We're not winning it for Larry," said Reggie Miller, who like most of the Pacers has never been to the finals. "We're winning it for ourselves. He already has three rings. He's won it, we haven't."

The Pacers finished the regular season with five consecutive victories, including consecutive road games at Miami, Detroit and Philadelphia.

Bird gave the team a day off Thursday and scheduled practice sessions Friday and Saturday.

"It was good starting on Sunday for us," said Miller, who averaged 22.3 points against Milwaukee as the teams split their four games this season and has a 23.0 average for 78 playoff games. "The last two weeks were very stressful, trying to secure home-court advantage, and when you have a lot of tough games on the road.

"This gives us a chance to rest. We have a lot of guys who are kind of banged up."

Miller averaged 26.3 points in the three playoff games with the Bucks last year, including 33 when Indiana completed its sweep with a 99-91 road triumph.

He's isn't planning to change his game.

"I just try to be aggressive and try to create openings, instead of letting openings come to me. I know I can shoot over Ray Allen, and I can take him off the dribble," he said.